Anyone still make dekatron spinners or have any pcb's or kits?

[Bill Notfaded]

I've been interested in nixie and numitrons for a long time but somehow have overlooked dekatrons.  Considering my field of study and work (CIS) I'm not sure how... anyhow I've done a lot of digging but it seems no ones really making or selling anything to run dekatrons with anymore.  I bought a NIB Sylvania 6476A because it looked like as good of a place to start as any.  It looks like some people have made some pretty flexible designs and I was wondering if anyone could help point me in the right direction?  I've seen some neat clock designs as well using a dekatron for pendulum, or even a clock, and it looks like a couple people used to make and sell some really neat dekatron pcb's to build B12E base spinners.  I hope I didn't totally miss the boat?  With bigger tubes getting more and more scarce it seems like dekatrons is still an area that would fun to explore.  I'm always interested in something new to work on and ever since finally getting a metcal soldering station I'd wanted for a long time I've been wanting to solder everything under the sun... and it makes a good hobby away from work.

I'd even be into possibly getting some boards made if someone had a design that was flexible and didn't mind sharing it if no one has anything else.

Bill

[Nicholas Stock]

http://www.sgitheach.org.uk/spinner3.html

Sent from my iPhone

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[Ron Walsh]

One of the members here sells dekatron spinner kits on ebay.  You can check out his site at

https://threeneurons.wordpress.com/

I have built several of his kits, and they are amazing.

Ron

...Semper Fidelis...

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[Mac Doktor]

On May 1, 2019, at 1:41 PM, Ron Walsh <mgb...@bellsouth.net> wrote:

One of the members here sells dekatron spinner kits on ebay.  You can check out his site at

https://threeneurons.wordpress.com/

I have built several of his kits, and they are amazing.

I've built the simple spinner kit. According to eBay: "In the process of moving. I intend to back online, Monday, March 11, 2019" So there are not kits available at the moment. In the meantime, here's his (current empty) eBay store:

http://www.ebaystores.com/Tortugascuba?_rdc=1&

I also have his Nixie thermometer with numerals (ZM1000). There is an optional bargraph (IN-13) to show the action of the A/D convertor he used. I haven't assembled it yet but...

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

[Bill Notfaded]

Wow Pramanicin!  I didn't see that one already... very cool.

Thanks,

Bill

[Bill Notfaded]

This is what I found as well... he has an awesome website.  I hope he'll start selling some stuff again eventually and everything is ok.  Very well documented and I get the feeling he is doing it for all the right reasons.

B

[Paul Andrews]

Yes. I love that all toob dekatron spinner. But then Grahame's site has many fascinating projects on it that are leading me down strange paths...

[Nicholas Stock]

Kits are still available....:-)

Sent from my iPhone

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[martin martin]

You can find Dekatron Spinner Kits here

https://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/nixie.html 

 

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[【ツ】John Smout]

Hi people,

I just took a punt on a bunch of 20 digit alphanumeric VFD displays. I have never seen any VFDs longer than this, most are 16 digit max.

Alvin G was a short-lived American company making pinball machines between 1992 and 1994. Most notable were its double-headed pinball machines, where you could play either with a human opponent or with the machine itself, which would flip the balls back from the opposing side automatically. These displays were used in the double-sided machines, one board at either end. The displays are mounted in pairs, complete with associated driving components.

An Australian company, Pinball Spare Parts, has recently bought out some Alvin G spares inventory and is selling these untested NOS boards at a silly price. If you buy ten PCB boards, ie 20 x 20-digit displays total, they are just AUS $5.00 (AUS $5.50 inc Australian tax) each. Shipping of course extra.

Head on over to https://www.pinballspareparts.com.au/pca-003.html and get some for yourself. Meanwhile, I am trying to source some schematics for Alvin G pinball machines - unless someone here already has them?

 

John S

[Dylan Distasio]

Thanks, I was about to place an order but the shipping to the US is extremely expensive, so now I'm debating (It's $64AUD for the cheapest!).

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[【ツ】John Smout]

> On 8 May 2019, at 18:26, Dylan Distasio <inte...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks, I was about to place an order but the shipping to the US is extremely expensive, so now I'm debating (It's $64AUD for the cheapest!).

Maybe. With US shipping based on 10 PCBs that is US $4 for each 20 character VFD and people easily pay $4 for single nixie tubes. These are big heavy display boards to ship.

John S

[Dylan Distasio]

Good point.  BTW, just a heads up, but based on the same seller's eBay listing, it looks like all of these boards being sold were returns initially.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ALVIN-G-DISPLAY-BOARD-untested-PCA-003-pack-of-10-/153370861342  

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[【ツ】John Smout]

> On 8 May 2019, at 19:01, Dylan Distasio <inte...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Good point. BTW, just a heads up, but based on the same seller's eBay listing, it looks like all of these boards being sold were returns initially.

Also a good point. I await their arrival to see what dogs I have bought, or not.

Best wishes,

John

[Bill Notfaded]

I wonder are they individual displays all connected together or do they come apart? If they work it's kinda cool.

Bill

[lokn...@gmail.com]

I wish someone would sell a kit for a 6-8 Dekatron Clock. I know there is s blog describing how someone built their own but I was hoping for something already engineered. 
I have also seen them on YouTube 

https://youtu.be/pK276xZWyo4

Any thoughts?

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[Grahame Marsh]

Hi, hopefully Nick Stock and I will have a 7 dekatron clock (British dekatrons only at first and perhaps Soviet tubes as a second step) clock available in a few months time. We need to get the E1T kit finished first. I should be able to post pictures of the dekatron clock prototype in a few weeks. It uses basically the same electronics as the E1T clock but with the tube drivers changed out, a Higher voltage PSU and no heater supply, obviously. It also shares a lot of the firmware with the E1T clock, with just a different display tube interface. Grahame

 

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[Paul Andrews]

Looking forward to that! Do I need to stock up on British Dekatrons before you guys drive the price up?

On Friday, May 10, 2019 at 9:50:35 AM UTC-4, Sgitheach wrote:

Hi, hopefully Nick Stock and I will have a 7 dekatron clock (British dekatrons only at first and perhaps Soviet tubes as a second step) clock available in a few months time. We need to get the E1T kit finished first. I should be able to post pictures of the dekatron clock prototype in a few weeks. It uses basically the same electronics as the E1T clock but with the tube drivers changed out, a Higher voltage PSU and no heater supply, obviously. It also shares a lot of the firmware with the E1T clock, with just a different display tube interface. Grahame

On Fri, 10 May 2019 at 13:58, <lokn...@gmail.com> wrote:

I wish someone would sell a kit for a 6-8 Dekatron Clock. I know there is s blog describing how someone built their own but I was hoping for something already engineered. 
I have also seen them on YouTube 

https://youtu.be/pK276xZWyo4

Any thoughts?

On May 1, 2019, at 16:39, Bill Notfaded <notf...@gmail.com> wrote:

Wow Pramanicin!  I didn't see that one already... very cool.

Thanks,

Bill

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[Nicholas Stock]

Wouldn’t hurt....:-)

Ha ha.

We plan on offering fully built clocks and kits, but it’s at the development stage at the moment. As always, the documentation will be publicly available and open source in design.

Sent from my iPhone

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[Grahame Marsh]

sorry about that, but I think I have just created some interest. The clock will use six GC10B and variants and one GC12/4B. 

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[Nicholas Stock]

There ‘may’ be a US version too using 6802 type dekatrons, but the case will need tweaking for that....

Sent from my iPhone

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[Paul Andrews]

I just snagged the tubes, so no pressure!

Grahame, I also have a nice old scope (a CY-1300/U) that is just itching to be turned into a clock. I believe a guy called Justin has already been talking to you about almost the same thing - he has the same scope. It was also your site that showed me that VR tubes existed, so you’ve got a lot to answer for!

Several other projects on the go before I get around to the scope clock though.

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[Mac Doktor]

> On May 10, 2019, at 9:50 AM, 'Grahame Marsh' via neonixie-l <neoni...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> Hi, hopefully Nick Stock and I will have a 7 dekatron clock (British dekatrons only at first and perhaps Soviet tubes as a second step) clock available in a few months time.

What will the price range be? (the clock, not the tubes). I'll have to start saving up!

[Bill Notfaded]

I'm 100% in you guys know that!  Keep us posted.

Bill

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[dixter]

I'd be interested in that clock...  been wanting one like that for a while now... put me down on the list please...

On Friday, May 10, 2019 at 8:50:35 AM UTC-5, Sgitheach wrote:

Hi, hopefully Nick Stock and I will have a 7 dekatron clock (British dekatrons only at first and perhaps Soviet tubes as a second step) clock available in a few months time. We need to get the E1T kit finished first. I should be able to post pictures of the dekatron clock prototype in a few weeks. It uses basically the same electronics as the E1T clock but with the tube drivers changed out, a Higher voltage PSU and no heater supply, obviously. It also shares a lot of the firmware with the E1T clock, with just a different display tube interface. Grahame

On Fri, 10 May 2019 at 13:58, <lokn...@gmail.com> wrote:

I wish someone would sell a kit for a 6-8 Dekatron Clock. I know there is s blog describing how someone built their own but I was hoping for something already engineered. 
I have also seen them on YouTube 

https://youtu.be/pK276xZWyo4

Any thoughts?

On May 1, 2019, at 16:39, Bill Notfaded <notf...@gmail.com> wrote:

Wow Pramanicin!  I didn't see that one already... very cool.

Thanks,

Bill

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[Mike Mitchell]

On Friday, May 10, 2019 at 8:58:02 AM UTC-4, Collin Smith wrote:

I wish someone would sell a kit for a 6-8 Dekatron Clock. I know there is s blog describing how someone built their own but I was hoping for something already engineered. 
I have also seen them on YouTube 

https://youtu.be/pK276xZWyo4

Any thoughts?

Thanks for the shout-out to my clock.  It's still running after almost five years.  I don't mean to scare you off, but here's some photos of it's construction.  I hand-built two of them.

Mike

 

[Bill Notfaded]

I just snagged the GC12/4B's a couple of them. They're getting harder to find for a decent price.

Bill

[Bill Notfaded]

For what it's worth I've been trying to track totugascuba dekatron expert down but can't find him. I emailed the tube only dekatron guy... Who's in here and haven't gotten anything back yet. I even bought two of those weird GC12/4B-UN dekatrons if they make the clocks eventually...I had to go outside eBay because the only one was way too expensive:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GC12-4B-TUBE-CV5243-TUBE-ETL-BRAND-TUBE-DEKATRON-NOS-TUBE-RC13/142293960448?hash=item2121618700:g:54gAAOSwXYtYszrd

Bill

[Bill Notfaded]

Did you get your ordered boards John?  I'm curious how they come apart.  Also I'm still looking for dekatron spinners and clock which was what the original thread was about.  I also found what I think are some kinda neat vfd tubes.  I've never really built any vfd clocks before.  Does anyone know any good kits for DT1704 type vfd tubes?  Here's a picture of the tubes:

I'm looking into one possible kit from Torsten Langs that looks promising.  It's got an expensive case but looks amazing!

Thanks for any help,

Bill

[Dylan Distasio]

I'd also be interested in a  DT1704 kit, but the prices on the one you mentioned are way too much for me to consider.  I actually have a fairly large number of these tubes (relatively speaking) and have considered trying to spin up my own board, although it would be my first, and I don't know when I will find the time.

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[David Pye]

Hey Dylan,

You might be able to modify (if you wished) the clock design for my multitube VFD clock, and change the footprints to whatever these tubes need, as it looks like the voltage requirements for segments and heater are within the range of the boost/buck boards and driver ICs :-)

https://github.com/davidmpye/VFD/tree/master/IV11

David

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[Frank Bemelman]

And another nice vector scope + demo of special made music for that..

https://youtu.be/ZaTuFB5QXHo

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Vriendelijke groeten,

Frank Bemelman

Frank Techniek

Vennestraat 11X

2161LE  Lisse

Telefoon +31 252 769 178

[Bill Notfaded]

I like that David!  Open source!

Bill

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[Mac Doktor]

On May 16, 2019, at 4:58 PM, Frank Bemelman <beme...@franktechniek.nl> wrote:

And another nice vector scope + demo of special made music for that..

https://youtu.be/ZaTuFB5QXHo

Want want want want!

[martin martin]

Too cool

mcve...@gmail.com

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[Bill Notfaded]

It is kinda neat making sound make images.

Bill

[【ツ】John Smout]

> On 16 May 2019, at 20:37, Bill Notfaded <notf...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Did you get your ordered boards John? I'm curious how they come apart.

10 boards, 20 displays, are on their way from Australia to UK as we speak. I just hope I don’t get hammered for import duty. I only went for these because they are 20 digit Union Flag style and I’ve never seen any longer than this.

The displays will no doubt unsolder from the PCB easily enough, but as the driving circuitry is on there, I may keep them as is.

A good source of similar 16 digit serial driven displays are available in 12v or 5v from old AWP and SWP machines. These choke at high speed, but are really easy to drive. Beware of used ones as many of these are dim, mottled and at the end of their life. If you can find access to the filament pins, driving them with 12v for a short while (the filament will glow hot) can renovate them, but this can only be done a finite number of times before the filament burns out. Fine for a machine which is only switched on for a short while, ie home use. For a clock, not so great.

For the uninitiated, UK slot machines have these trade terms and come under different licensing laws, which may depend on the premises, from kebab shop to casino:

AWP means Amusement With Prizes. They provide some level of player interaction, perhaps hold buttons on slot reels for example. They do not depend on the skill of the player. The prize is usually coins, tokens or more plays and are regulated as gambling devices.
SWP means Skill With Prizes which do depend on the skill of the player. These might be quiz machines which might be considered to be a variation of video games. Maybe crane machines where you pick up goods to drop into a hopper. These have software control of the gripper timing and strength that will guarantee you lose most of the time. It appears to be pure skill, but borders on the criminal in operation - perhaps only one in ten tries will have a strong enough electro-magnetic grip to ever hold an object. You have no chance with heavy objects like watches, always prominently displayed.

It’s always been my contention that it is far cheaper to buy the entire machine and mess with it at home than throw money away in an arcade. You can usually sell it at the very least for what you paid for it.

John S

[David Pye]

Thanks Bill !

I'm lucky that this is just a hobby for me, and so I try to make everything I do open source as I don't need to make my living from it.

What I do like is to sell the odd kit of the prepackaged bits, just to fund my next project, but ultimately, I'm just pleased if people like/learn from/critique my designs :-)

David

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[Jon Jackson]

John,

I have a couple of these 20-digit VFD displays.  The label says it's a Noritake itran model FG2013A1 display which is listed as discontinued on the Noritake web site.

A search has not come up with a datasheet.  Do you have a copy of the datasheet you could share?

Jon D.

On Wed, May 8, 2019 at 10:53 AM 【ツ】John Smout <j...@jsdesign.co.uk> wrote:

Hi people,

I just took a punt on a bunch of 20 digit alphanumeric VFD displays. I have never seen any VFDs longer than this, most are 16 digit max.

Alvin G was a short-lived American company making pinball machines between 1992 and 1994. Most notable were its double-headed pinball machines, where you could play either with a human opponent or with the machine itself, which would flip the balls back from the opposing side automatically. These displays were used in the double-sided machines, one board at either end. The displays are mounted in pairs, complete with associated driving components.

An Australian company, Pinball Spare Parts, has recently bought out some Alvin G spares inventory and is selling these untested NOS boards at a silly price. If you buy ten PCB boards, ie 20 x 20-digit displays total, they are just AUS $5.00 (AUS $5.50 inc Australian tax) each. Shipping of course extra.

Head on over to https://www.pinballspareparts.com.au/pca-003.html and get some for yourself. Meanwhile, I am trying to source some schematics for Alvin G pinball machines - unless someone here already has them?

 

John S

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[【ツ】John Smout]

I don’t have a datasheet, nor do I have my displays yet. My main pinball man has drawn a blank on getting me a schematic and he’s been thorough. The manual is available from Marco in the US and the Australian seller also has manuals - https://www.pinballspareparts.com.au

I have asked the Australian place if they can send me a schematic just for the display. I await their response. If they are good boys they will do me a scan.

Andrew Jardine lurks here - he is good with VFDs such as these. I already suggested I send him a board to play with, but he’s not responded yet with his address. Andrew, where are you boyo? 

Regards,

John S

[【ツ】John Smout]

I don’t have a datasheet, nor do I have my displays yet. My main pinball man has drawn a blank on getting me a schematic and he’s been thorough. The manual is available from Marco in the US and the Australian seller also has manuals - https://www.pinballspareparts.com.au

I have asked the Australian place if they can send me a schematic just for the display. I await their response. If they are good boys they will do me a scan.

Andrew Jardine lurks here - he is good with VFDs such as these. I already suggested I send him a board to play with, but he’s not responded yet with his address. Andrew, where are you boyo? 

Regards,

John S

On 22 May 2019, at 18:13, Jon Jackson <jond...@gmail.com> wrote:

[【ツ】John Smout]

On 22 May 2019, at 18:13, Jon Jackson <jond...@gmail.com> wrote:

John,

I have a couple of these 20-digit VFD displays.  The label says it's a Noritake itran model FG2013A1 display which is listed as discontinued on the Noritake web site.

A search has not come up with a datasheet.  Do you have a copy of the datasheet you could share?

Jon D.

Noritake itran will be Noritake itron, Jon.

The old kiss-off came from pinballspareparts.com, they are not playing ball as it were. I know they sell the manuals. I was hoping they’d offer to scan the page for me as I'd bought 10 boards. I may rattle their cage again - what have I to lose?

Just thought of someone else to ask… a walking encyclopaedia of all things pinball. All is not yet lost.

Incidentally, anyone visiting London into pinball, with all its neon and flashing light loveliness, should visit http://www.flipoutlondon.com/ but check opening times. Over 50 machines to play, in a permanent location run by collectors and enthusiasts.

John S

[lokn...@gmail.com]

Mike,

Thanks for sharing your photos. I must say I am very impressed at your ability to freehand the clocks schematic.

Collin

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<20140723_002045.jpg>

<20140727_132511.jpg>

<DSCN0009-2.jpg>

[Bill Notfaded]

I too love this and want one too.  I have a bunch of OG-4 coming and I've collected a set of the other British tubes for sgitheach and Nicks clock when it's ready.  Dekatrons come from a special time in computing history and making things with them helps to remind us where we came from.  Sometimes we take for granted what we had to do to get the point where we carry a computer in our pockets with current display technology.  Another example I purchased some 7 segment nixie from a guy in asia recently.  After receiving the tubes I found one of the original devices (a calculator) that used them and last night (after crafting a custom power cable) found out that it works perfectly after removing a screw that fell down on the circuit board.  Here are some pics of both the tubes and the calculator.

Bill

[andybiker]

Shwmae But.

Hi John, I'm here!

Looking at the picture of the display it looks like a parallel interface of some kind.

There's a micro and ram on the board. 

I wonder if it's compatible with another pinball display ?

Unlike the newer displays these do not appear to have any power supply onboard so will need filament, HV and logic supplies.

You may be lucky and find there's a serial input - that would be the simplest.

Andrew

[GastonP]

Hi guys,

       Did anyone receive any of those boards from Down Under? I feel tempted to buy but I'm afraid the VFDs could be outgassed.

The customs regulations in my country let me buy only one at a time so my success probabilities should be high for me to take the plunge... 86 USD for a board with two duds would be a very big hit down in my wallet...

Regards

   Gaston

[Keith Moore]

I grabbed some, too. Did you find a datasheet or Alvin manual? 

It is a parallel interface but it'll be interesting to try and reverse engineer this. These are lovely display boards. 

On Wednesday, May 22, 2019 at 1:14:00 PM UTC-4, Jon D. wrote:

John,

I have a couple of these 20-digit VFD displays.  The label says it's a Noritake itran model FG2013A1 display which is listed as discontinued on the Noritake web site.

A search has not come up with a datasheet.  Do you have a copy of the datasheet you could share?

Jon D.

On Wed, May 8, 2019 at 10:53 AM 【ツ】John Smout <j...@jsdesign.co.uk> wrote:

Hi people,

I just took a punt on a bunch of 20 digit alphanumeric VFD displays. I have never seen any VFDs longer than this, most are 16 digit max.

Alvin G was a short-lived American company making pinball machines between 1992 and 1994. Most notable were its double-headed pinball machines, where you could play either with a human opponent or with the machine itself, which would flip the balls back from the opposing side automatically. These displays were used in the double-sided machines, one board at either end. The displays are mounted in pairs, complete with associated driving components.

An Australian company, Pinball Spare Parts, has recently bought out some Alvin G spares inventory and is selling these untested NOS boards at a silly price. If you buy ten PCB boards, ie 20 x 20-digit displays total, they are just AUS $5.00 (AUS $5.50 inc Australian tax) each. Shipping of course extra.

Head on over to https://www.pinballspareparts.com.au/pca-003.html and get some for yourself. Meanwhile, I am trying to source some schematics for Alvin G pinball machines - unless someone here already has them?

 

John S

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[【ツ】John Smout]

I am not having much success with a schematic. I just wrote to another contact who may be able to help.

I am also not having much success with delivery of the boards either. I received a note that they had cleared UK customs. I received a further message that they tried to deliver to me on Monday (a public holiday in the UK). If they did then they left no note and I was in the room next to the front door all day. The tracking number now doesn’t show up on the system. So I don’t know if I shall ever see these displays or not.

John S

[【ツ】John Smout]

I have a complete manual, inc. schematics, for Alvin G’s 'Dinosaur Eggs' on its way to me. This should be compatible with the VFD display boards.

https://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?name=dinosaur+eggs&mfgid=20&sortby=name&searchtype=advanced

Once I have the manual, I’ll scan the relevant pages and post them somewhere.

Best wishes,

John S

[Bill Notfaded]

Wow that database is impressive!

Bill

[Keith Moore]

John, 

Great. Let me know when you get this.  These boards look luscious.  It looks like a parallel interface in, but the mapping of the pins would be tedious without manual/schematics. 

- Keith 

[【ツ】John Smout]

Hi Keith,

I just found out where my boards are. I got hit with some customs duty and I only just got a bill to say so today. My displays should be with me on Monday now as I’ve sent the government its due.

The manual was sent out to me via second class post yesterday, so I might get it tomorrow or perhaps on Monday. I told the guy there was no hurry and second class was fine, because he was paying for the postage and I didn’t even know where my boards had disappeared to or, indeed, if I’d ever see them.

I am sure that among us all, we shall find a way to drive these babies.

Best wishes,

John S

[John Smout]

I now have my displays and the schematic.

I have scanned relevant manual pages, power supply, interconnect, display board and component identification.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bltgd4w4o9gonuy/Alvin_G_Display.zip?dl=0

John S

[【ツ】John Smout]

I thought this was a rather jolly little video featuring Doepfer Eurorack music synthesiser modules.
https://youtu.be/15I2BcjC_VA

John S

[Bill Notfaded]

I loved Doepfer products.  My last synth from them was DS-404 rack mount mono synth I think it was called.  They made nice products.  His sounds lathe was pretty sweet too... Massive knobbage!

Bill

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[Samuel G. Guss]

Greetings John,

I just want to thank you for posting these scans. I received my
displays, and while i was very happy with the purchase, i was a little
overwhelmed with the prospect of figuring out how to light 'em up.
Thanks to you, i now have a solid basis from which to proceed.

And i'd also like to throw in a big thanks to everyone on this list -
i've learned so much from all of you!

All the best,
Sam

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[andybiker]

Hi John,

The scans you posted answer all of the questions.

There is no "display controller" as you'd expect from the modern "fruit machine" displays.

All we have on the board is latches and level shifters.

pins 16,18,19 control a shift register (TL5812) to select the digit position to display (both displays selected at the same time)

there are then 4 latches - 2 for segments on top display, 2 for segments on bottom display

These latch the 8 bit data bus (pins 4 to 11) to each level shifter.

the first 3 latches are internal to an 8255 (antique i/o port that I last used in the early 80s) - selected with /A7 (pin3) low , /SEL4 (pin 13) low and /WR (pin1) low /RD (pin 2) HIGH

A0 and A1 (pins 14 + 15) select which one of the 3 latches to use (and initialise the 8255)

As this part only has 3 latches and we need 4, an extra latch has been bolted on in the form of IC2 (74ls273)

This is selected with /SEL4 (pin 13) low, /A7 (pin 3) HIGH, /WR (pin1) low

(I think reset should be kept high - need to check data sheets)

Supplies are 47v, 5v, 4.5vAC for the filament.

Data sheets are available for all of these chips.

I suspect that driving one is "a full time job" for something like a simple arduino.

I hope my ramblings help someone,

Cheers,

Andrew

[Keith Moore]

This is accurate and great detail. I believe it is simpler than you might think. This is just a parallel interface (times two).

The work is done with the shifters and the data is pumped via a parallel interface from the processor as in the original design.

I am just a software guy, but once I saw the trusty parallel chip, I figured it was a parallel interface. 

So how does one drive a parallel interface from Arduino/Raspberry?  Probably via a serial to parallel converter board with a variant of IEEE 1284 output. I have not looked into this yet, but that's where I plan to start.  

Am I way off base? 

[Keith Moore]

Thank you so much, John! These are very helpful!  

[GastonP]

Most Arduino kits but the smallest ones (i.e.: Mini) and Raspberry Pi have enough GPIO pins available to do it without need to resort to serial to parallel. Of course you can use any of the I2C chips available too. My philosophy is to adhere as much as possible to the KISS principle.

[Keith Moore]

Yup. And... I am probably wrong about the parallel interface. John describes it well. I was a comm jock once a long time ago before these were made. But I don't remember my line-level stuff.  It would be normal for it to be parallel in an internal design like this because it is faster to drive these. But it does look like a load and latch interface to two logical busses.  

[Keith Moore]

And this helps a lot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8255

[martin martin]

I found the schematic for one!  It's the same one I built back in '04

On Wednesday, May 1, 2019 at 10:23:08 AM UTC-7, Bill Notfaded wrote:

I've been interested in nixie and numitrons for a long time but somehow have overlooked dekatrons.  Considering my field of study and work (CIS) I'm not sure how... anyhow I've done a lot of digging but it seems no ones really making or selling anything to run dekatrons with anymore.  I bought a NIB Sylvania 6476A because it looked like as good of a place to start as any.  It looks like some people have made some pretty flexible designs and I was wondering if anyone could help point me in the right direction?  I've seen some neat clock designs as well using a dekatron for pendulum, or even a clock, and it looks like a couple people used to make and sell some really neat dekatron pcb's to build B12E base spinners.  I hope I didn't totally miss the boat?  With bigger tubes getting more and more scarce it seems like dekatrons is still an area that would fun to explore.  I'm always interested in something new to work on and ever since finally getting a metcal soldering station I'd wanted for a long time I've been wanting to solder everything under the sun... and it makes a good hobby away from work.

I'd even be into possibly getting some boards made if someone had a design that was flexible and didn't mind sharing it if no one has anything else.

Bill

[Bill Notfaded]

Is it totugascuba's?  If not maybe post it or email it to me.

Thanks,

Bill

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[Bill Notfaded]

Thanks Martin!